"Louis L'amour - sackett05 - Ride The River" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

wages went.
"You hold your horses. No need to marry up with somebody just because the other
girls are doin' it. I've been yonder where folks live different and there's a
better way than to spend your years churnin' milk an' hoeing corn. But one word
of caution: don't you be lettin' the boys know how good you can shoot. Not many
men would like to be bested by a spit of a girl not five feet tall!"
"I'm five-feet-two!" I protested.
"You mind what I say. When you get down to the Settlements, you mind your P's
an' Q's. When a man talks to a girl, he's not as honest as he might be, although
at the time he half-believes it all himself. There's times a man will promise a
girl anything an' forget his promises before the hour's up."
"Did you make promises like that, Regal?"
"No, I never. When a woman sees a man she wants, there's no need to promise or
even say very much. A woman will come up with better answers than any poor
mountain boy could think up. I was kind of shy there at first, then I found it
was workin' for me so I just kept on bein' shy.
"Womenfolks have powerful imaginations when it comes to a man, an' she can read
things into him he never knew was there, and like as not, they ain't!"
Turning to look back, I could still see Blanket and Thunderhead Mountains and
the end of Davis Ridge. It was clouding up and coming on to rain.

Philadelphia had more folks in it than I reckoned there was in the world. When I
stepped down from the stage I made query of the driver as to where I was wishful
of goin' and he stepped out into the street and pointed the way.
The place I was heading for was a rooming-and-boarding house kept by a woman who
had kinfolk in the mountains. It was reckoned a safe place for a young girl to
stay. Not that I was much worried. I had me an Arkansas toothpick slung in its
scabbard inside my dress and a little slit pocket where I could reach through
the folds to fetch it. In my carpetbag I carried a pistol.
Most unmarried folks and others who were married ate in boardinghouses, them
days. Restaurants were for folks with money or for an evening on the town. Folks
who worked in shops and the like hunted places where there was room an' board,
although some roomed in one place and boarded elsewhere.
Amy Sulky had twelve rooms to let but she set table for twenty-four. She had two
setups for breakfast, one for noontime, as most carried lunches to their work or
caught a snack nearby or from a street vendor. At suppertime she had two
settin's again.
I'd writ Amy so she knew I was comin' and had kept a place for me. A nice room
it was, too, mighty luxurious for the likes of me, with curtains to the windows,
a rag rug on the floor, a bed, a chair, and a washstand with a white china bowl
and pitcher on it.
First thing when I got to my room was take a peek past the curtain, and sure
enough, the man who followed me from the stage was outside, makin' like he was
readin' a newspaper.
When a girl grows up in Injun country hunting all her born days, she becomes
watchful. Gettin' down from the stage, I saw that man see me like I was somebody
expected. Making a point of not seemin' to notice, I started off up the street,
but when I stopped at a crossing, I noticed him fold his newspaper and start
after me.
Back in the high country folks said I was a right pretty girl, but that cut no